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Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit
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Yellow Peril

Two weeks ago, a New York Post writer made me an astonishing offer. If I forked over $200,000 or so, he promised, the Post's Page Six gossip pages would stop publishing false items about my personal life. The video recording of that conversation and others that occurred during my three hours of meetings with Page Six reporter Jared Paul Stern are now in the hands of law enforcement authorities, as are the volley of emails between him and a member of my staff. These include such statements by Mr. Stern as: "I'm just saying things are heating up and time is of the essence for several reasons . . . before putting myself on the line I need a firm commitment . . . if you want to get me a check or wire or something to get the ball rolling that's fine and we can sit down when you have time."

The media has had a field day with the revelations, but there are real lessons to be learned. At least since the Enron era, business leaders have faced more stringent accountability than ever before. They are versed in the rules of corporate governance, which require care in what is said publicly and demand full disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. However, these principles are not just for the boardroom: They must also be practiced in the newsroom. While the vast majority of the media maintain high levels of integrity, the resistance by some newspapers to correcting basic falsehoods is alarming.

After a series of letters to the New York Post complaining of one inaccurate item after another, I finally received a commitment that future pieces would be accurate and that the editors would contact me before any future article was published. Less than two weeks later, another inaccurate item appeared, without as much as a call for comment. The Post's reaction to the exposure of Mr. Stern's behavior was along similar lines. Without any investigation or reflection, a spokesman for the Post said straightaway, "It's only one person, the gossip page is the best page in the world and there's no reason to change any guidelines." This is despite allegations made by Mr. Stern and memorialized on videotape of unethical behavior or worse on the part of others on the Post's news staff.

Casual disregard for the facts may be synonymous with tabloid gossip. And it would be satisfying to reach the conclusion that simply holding gossip-writers to the same standards as other journalists will solve the problem. But it won't. For one thing, gossip and tabloid-style journalism has been spreading rapidly to other spheres of reporting. Gossip coverage that used to be devoted primarily to movie stars now encompasses politicians and business people.

With the rise of blogs, reality TV, camera phones and other types of instant media, one can see a day when anyone, anywhere could become the subject of salacious journalism. And as gossip journalism spreads, so do the shoddy standards that accompany it. I'm not talking about bribes or extortion. One hopes that's a rare practice. But consider what the New York Times reported about the way business is done at Page Six: "Keeping a list of reliable sources, of course, means having a list of people who need to be protected somewhat. Those who cooperate -- called 'friends of the column,' according to people who work with and at Page Six -- are rewarded; those who fight back are punished."

This appears to be standard operating procedure at Page Six. I was asked repeatedly to pass on secrets about my friends to gain protection against negative stories about myself. I refused to play this game, so I was punished. But this source game is not only played on Page Six. It is also played for high stakes on Wall Street and in Washington. We've all read how well-known and respected journalists have readily protected top-ranked officials leaking classified information. It makes one wonder: Where does the political reporter end and the political operative begin?

No doubt the challenge of upholding the highest media standards has never been harder. But institutions that give up will find that the lines between them and bloggers, demi-pundits and rumor-mongers on the Internet will be blurred beyond recognition. Newspapers that continue to go down the road of tabloidism, that adopt the shoddy standards of gossip reporting, and that arrogantly resist correcting their mistakes, risk losing their special role in our democracy.

Mr. Burkle owns the Yucaipa Companies. Jared Paul Stern has written at least four free-lance pieces for this newspaper in recent years.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A14

Copyright 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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General Motors Co. Chief Executive Mary Barra earned $16.2 million in a choppy first year at the helm, a pay package that far outpaces her predecessor’s compensation and exceeds the initial target set by the board when she took the job.

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